This disclosure relates to system monitoring, and more particularly to model based predictive control and hydraulic fluid flow control management for hydro mechanical systems.
Complex engineered systems including such things as vehicles, gas turbine engines, heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are coupled dynamic systems where response of one component may interact unfavorably with another component within the same system. This interaction can be managed via two complementary approaches: control methods that actively manage the interaction between multiple components (or sub-systems) of a subsystem and, excess design margins that ensure system-level metrics are achievable in the presence of unfavorable interactions. Advanced control design techniques can be useful in reducing excessive design margins (over-design) to either increase system performance or reduce its cost.
In hydraulic actuations systems used to manipulate mechanical systems such as variable geometry of a gas turbine engine, it becomes important to manage the flow of hydraulic fluid required at any given time such that pumps and power delivery system are not overburdened. In order to handle this, either the pump system must be sized to handle the worst case flow requirements of all systems actuating at one time or the sub-systems have to be managed together, preventing the sum of the flow from exceeding limits and the capabilities of the pumps. Since an engine is a highly coupled system, stopping or slowing one sub-system while another is allowed to move at full rate can be problematic therefore coordinated management is required.